Kicking the Habit
by RavenRamsey
Summary: Rogue's decent into the world of drugs with the mutant narcotic Kick.
1. Default Chapter

It all started at Splicer. You never would have thought you would have seen a place like it in Bayville, the sleepy little burg in New England. The perfect little town to bring your kids to learn and find the right type of person to marry. Poverty was almost an unknown in the affluent little town, where house could be bought and sold in the millions. The local high school was very highly recommended and was never short of funding from the well off parents of the town.  
  
This was the way it was until the secret that the town had been harboring was blown clear out of the closet.  
  
The debacle with the Sentinel made it known to the world that mutants were indeed real and lived right along with the rest of humanity. They lived in your neighborhood, went to your school, rang up your groceries and taught your children. The media coverage of the sentinel attack and of the fight with Juggernaut also showed that some mutants were even trained for combat in their unknown powers.  
  
The X-Men became celebrities of a sort through out the mutant world. The very first ones to come out into public and say, "this is what I am!" they no longer hid what they were anymore from anyone. An inspiration to all the mutant's still in hiding around the world. Soon the faces of Bayville began to change as the mutant population grew from just the twenty or so known to well into the hundreds. They came from mostly New York, Jersey and surrounding areas, seeing Bayville as the place to be who they were. Parents took their mutant children and enrolled them in Bayville High and some even in The Institute, though it now had a reputation of being a place where your children would be sent on death missions.  
  
Of course they were met with hatred from many of the human populace, but soon there were too many mutants to be kept segregated. Principal Kelly tried to keep many out but failed when many sued the school for discrimination.  
  
As the population grew, businesses began to reflect the growing population as houses were built, cheap housing for those who had dropped everything to come here. Discount stores where clothes were cheap, first awkwardly standing next to high end stores then growing in number. Many mutant oriented bars opened up. As well as clubs. But The Splicer was unique.  
  
If there was a border between where most of the mutants had taken up residence and where the humans tried to forget they existed, the Splicer sat right on it. A place whose motto was "leave your genes at the door!" it was the only club in the newly busy town that accepted both gene pools openly. Many already established places had resolutely banned mutants from coming so a retaliatory wave of pro-mutant bars and clubs had opened.  
  
It had actually been Scott Summers and Jean Grey who had discovered it first. He and Jean were out for a ride on a Saturday night. Not on a date of course! Just out as "friends". They had found it by accident, a long line waiting to get in and it was obvious mutants were welcome. It wasn't too deep in either territory so they decided to have a look.  
  
No sooner were they passing the front door to head to the back of the line than one of the bouncers who had a deep and scaly red skin did a double take on them.  
  
"Yo!" he bellowed, jogging after them. "Hey wait a minute! Ain't you the X- men?"  
  
Jean and Scott froze and turned around, acutely aware that everyone was now looking at them. Scott decided that if there was going to be trouble he better not be coy about it. "Yeah, we are. What do you want?"  
  
The red man smiled and stuck out his hand. When Scott hesitantly took it, he shook it hard. "It's so great to meet you. It's because of you that I came here and really came out as a mutant. I just wanted to say thanks for what you did. For all of us."  
  
When he offered his hand to Jean she shook it and said a little embarrassed, "we really didn't do anything. We didn't really plan all this."  
  
"It doesn't matter," he interrupted. "Your heroes to a lot of us. And ain't no hero's of mine going to the back of the line. Come with me." With that he turned around and headed back to the front door. Scott and Jean awkwardly followed him under the gaze of people in the line. Many were gazing at them in awe and whispering. A few had resentful looks on their faces and other openly waved and cheered.  
  
One well endowed girl with cheetah spots asked Scott for an autograph. Jean shot her a look of death and dragged Scott into the club before he had a chance to say anything.  
  
They passed a bouncer who appeared to be human and gave them thumbs up and let them by to follow the red bouncer.  
  
It was only 9:00 on a Friday night but the place was in chaos! It was maybe at only half capacity but nearly everyone was dancing or at the bar where "red" escorted them.  
  
"Hey, Dave!" Red bellowed at the bartender. A blonde blue eyed man came over with a smile and said "howdy".  
  
"This is Dave," Red introduced. "He's only human but he's okay."  
  
Dave laughed and said, "watch it lobster-boy! I got a pot of water calling your name."  
  
This time they both laughed both Scott and Jean blown away by the easy teasing.  
  
"Anyway," Red went on. "These here are the X-men. They don't pay for anything tonight!"  
  
A wide smile grew on his face. "I hear you! Wow, the X-men!" he then leaned onto the bar towards Jean. "You're a lot cuter in real life then on T.V."  
  
Jean blushed and said thanks while Scott glowered. Red said to have a good night and left them.  
  
From then on it seemed everywhere they went people knew them. Having mostly stayed in the human population they had never grasped just how famous they were. It was Professor Xavier's doing really, saying they couldn't start separating themselves at a time such as this.  
  
They had a great time and told the rest of the house the next morning.  
  
Over the next few months nearly everyone in the house had been to Splicer. Even Logan who had gone one night to check it out. He refrained from ever going again when about fifty mutant girls cornered him and kept on pleading to see his claws and write his autograph. Some in place Xavier would not exactly have approved of.  
  
Eventually the novelty of the place wore off and most members of the house only occasionally went. Only one member went there every weekend.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Rogue sat in one of the back corners on a couch just letting her head drift with the music. She didn't know why but she felt so at peace here. Maybe it was because she had never had to be afraid of explaining to be careful around her. Everyone already knew but treated her just the same anyway right off the bat. No fear. Not even most mutants had been like that till she came to this place. Also that after seeing some of the other mutations people got, she quickly learned that she wasn't that cursed.  
  
The fact that she was almost a god didn't hurt either, plus the free drinks, no cover and no waiting. It was her favorite place. She was underage to drink still but she wasn't stupid about it, unlike Kitty who had gotten smashed after one rum and coke and had almost done that strip tease she still wasn't living down.  
  
A group of mutants came over to her, laughing and talking and plopped down next to her, they all saying hey and what's up? She knew two of the five who sat down with her. The cheetah girl who had asked Scott for an autograph, her name was Sharon-Elizabeth Turner. Everyone called her Cheetara though because she looked like one of the Thunder Cats. Another was Kyle Luis who wore reflector sunglasses. He was "ironically" called Reflector.  
  
"Hey, guys," she said back. She only really knew a couple of them but everybody acted like the best of friends  
  
Rogue easily fell into the conversation about music as one guy with stubby horns pulled a plastic bag filled with some kind of greenish powder from his coat pocket, along with some rolling papers. He asked around for a cigarette and someone absently gave him one. While Rogue watched, only nodding into the talking around her, she watched as he tore open the cigarette and dumped the tobacco onto one of the thin papers. He opened the bag with the green powder and poured some of that into the tabacco, mixed it, and rolled it all up into the paper.  
  
"What the hell is that?" she finally asked.  
  
The guy just smiled at her as he placed it between his lips and lit it with a match from off the table. The ember glowed green as he inhaled, held it for about twenty seconds and then exhaled a plume of gray smoke and passed it to Sharon who was beside him. The cheetah girl inhaled and held the smoke for maybe ten seconds before coughing out pale emerald smoke.  
  
She passed it to Rogue still coughing. Rogue just stared at it not taking it. Reflector, who had been too engrossed in talking to here Rogue's earlier question, looked over and asked, "what? You don't do kick?"  
  
Rogue gave him a confused look and asked, "what the hell is kick?" it just looked like some weird green weed to her.  
  
"Man, you guys are sheltered at the Institute," Reflector laughed. He reached past Rogue and took the joint and took a long hit off it, holding the smoke for a full thirty seconds before letting the gray smoke out. "It's a drug made for mutants. It gives you a high like weed but it also does weird things with your powers, making them stronger and stuff."  
  
Even as he said this, Rogue could see a pale blue light start to shine around the edges of his shades. Rogue knew that behind the lenses his eyes were just balls of light that allowed him to see infrared.  
  
He started to giggle a little and said, "you know, when I'm smoking this I get X-ray vision." He then turned his head over to Cheetara and grinned. It took a moment for Rogue to clue in to what he was doing.  
  
She was still in too good a mood to get mad at him so she just snorted and said, "your sick!"  
  
"Oh yeah?" he drawled turning his eyes her way.  
  
"Oh hell no!" she exclaimed, catching his face and turning it back to Sharon. "She's got a lot more to see then me!  
  
Kyle burst out laughing, the light behind his eyes pulsing as he giggled out, "well lets comparison shop." Turning to Rogue and earning a slap on his face from the smirking girl.  
  
The guy who rolled the kick was inhaling more when he saw the slap and laughed out bright green smoke. "Dude! You were trying to see Rogue's tits!"  
  
Sharon got to laughing too and then shrieked, putting an arm across her tank top and over her crotch. "Holy fuck, I forgot I'm not wearing any underwear!"  
  
This time everyone broke up, even Rogue. Reflector was covering his eyes to fool Sharon into dropping her hands so he could look again and making her squeal when he looked so the joint was passed to her again and Rogue shook her head.  
  
"Have you ever tried it?" he asked.  
  
"No, and I ain't gonna," she replied.  
  
Reflector stopped playing peek a boo with Sharon and said, "come on, you have to try it at least one!"  
  
One of the other people she didn't know who looked like a bird laughed and chanted, "peer pressure! Peer pessure!" the last one she didn't know, a black girl with fairy wings giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "I love how you're funny!" she said.  
  
Rogue Rolled her eyes but still didn't take the joint and Sharon tittered "I think someone's afraid Scotty's going to spank them!"  
  
"Fuck you, nobody's afraid of him," Rogue drawled.  
  
"Who's afraid of the big bad Scott, big bad Scott, big bad Scott," Kyle sang out.  
  
"Who knows?" the guy still holding it out said. "Maybe it'll help you control your powers."  
  
Rogue snorted, "yeah right. And the first one's free right?"  
  
Reflector stopped singing. "You know, maybe it might. It always makes your powers stronger or whatever, make your just not at your control yet or something."  
  
"Right, and what if it makes me lose control of my power?" she asked back, thinking of a time she had lost control.  
  
"So?" Sharon said, getting a lot closer to the strange guy. "What's the worse that could happen?"  
  
"You don't want to know," Rogue answered.  
  
"Whatever," the guy said, passing it to Reflector. "Guess your too much goody goody pussy whip." He leaned back and wrapped an arm around Sharon who snuggled close and started talking into his ear. Or Rogue thought it was talking.  
  
"Excuse me?" she asked, leaning forward, suddenly angry. "What did you just say?"  
  
Kyle leaned forward and stage whispered, "I believe you called you a goody goody pussy whip."  
  
She whipped around and said, "Ah heard what he said!" she took the joint from Kyle and looked at it and then the guy. "Alright, I'll take some but if I do then you gotta go up to Bob," she pointed towards the bar where an eight armed mutant was serving five people at once, "and tell him you wish his eight arms were all over you!"  
  
Everyone had been wrapped up in the give and gave a roar approval at the dare and started chanting "do it! Do it! Do it!"  
  
The guy groaned and tried to get out of it but ended up agreeing to applause. But first Rogue had to finish what was left of the joint, which was about 3 hits. Rogue nodded and looked at the drug, thinking of everything that was told to them about them and the consequences if found out they took any. Well the night was young and hopefully it would wear out before she had to go home. And that no surprises came up.  
  
She placed it to her lips and inhaled. 


	2. Chapter 2

note: this chapter is going to suck. im out of practice!

...and immeadiately started to choked!

Everyone laughed and hollered as bright green smoke billowed from Rogue's mouth as she hacked. Rogue had smoked a few ciggerettes with Kitty just to see what they were like but this was very different. The smoke from the Kick was a lot smoother and invaded her lungs a lot quicker. Rogues continued to cough and wheeze and she was sure the light headedness she felt was not from the drug.

Sharon reached over and whacked her on the back a few times chanting "virgin lungs, virgin lungs!"

As Rogue shook her head to clear it, the guy with the stubby horns leaned in and raised Rogues limp hand to her lips, saying, "this time drag on it slower and try to hold it in."

Rogue rolled her eyes but took his advice, she breathed the smoke in slowly, letting her lungs get used to the arid sting. When her lungs were just about full she sat back and held the smoke in. Everybody clapped loudly for Rogue. she could feel the need to hack her guts up diminishing every second. It was only when she realized that she was actually picturing her lungs filled with swirling gases of green smoke that she realized the stuff might be affecting her.

She also realized that she had not breathed in a very long time.

When she let it out it seemed like the smoke would just keep on coming out of her forever, a neverending stream of dragon breath filling the room with smoke and cinders...

"um..." Rogue struggled to finish the thought. "um...I think I might be high...yeah that's what i wanted to say..." she looked at everyone. "I think I'm high."

The people around her were going nuts. Cheering on Rogue in the dark corner.

"oh my god," Reflector said stunned. "you held that in for like a minute! almost nothing came out! You absorbed almost all of that"

The guy with the stubbly horns shook his head with a laugh, "I must say i am imperessed!"

One of the guys Rogue didn't know and couldn't remember the name of if the world depended on it said, "but you still got a little bit to go!"

Rogue hazily held up her hand and realized that she did indeed have some more to do before it was all gone. She had a terrible feeling that she was already very trashed and didn't want this to go on too long...even though it did feel a little good.

The other new guy who was getting way too carried away grabbed her wrist and raised her hand to her lips. Suddenly everyone went dead quiet around Rogue. she looked around alarmed, wondering if she did something wrong when her eyes drifted to the hand gripping her wrist. It had pushed her sleeze up and was gripping her naked wrist. Usually she wore something more protective but everyone here already knew about her and her poison skin so she went with something looser.

The guy finally noticed as well and looked around nervously. "what's up with you guys?" he chuckled nervously.

"My skin kills..." Rogue murmered. The guy jumped back like he was stung. which in a way he should have been. Blurrily Rogue laid the rest of the roach on the table and pulled off her gloves. She gazed at her hands, not seeing any difference. Had it just been a fluke?

Sharon was the one who summoned up the courage and got out of her chair. She came over and knealt in front Rogue. Slowly she took her hands in hers. Both stayed rigid as the waited for something to happen. Nothing did.

Tears started to fall down Rogue's pale face, taking streams of mascara with it in inky trails.

"oh my god...I can touch."


	3. Chapter 3

The next day dawned sunny and bright over the Institute in Salem center. It was a Saturday morning no naturally nobody was actually up yet except for the few teachers who awoke at this hour to do whatever it is that adults do so early in the morning.

This is what Rogue was thinking as she sat in her room looking out at the sunny sky and actually smiling. Usually days like this just reminded her that she couldn't bare any skin on warm, sunny days like this. It seemed that everything reminded her that she couldn't touch. Some said that she only liked rainy days because of her whole goth image. The real reason was that on days like those she looked like anybody else, all covered against the elements. She loved winter for the same reason.

Only today the sun didn't bother her. Last night she had been able to touch another human being for the first time in years and it thrilled her, she couldn't get her mind off of that first contact of Sharon's hand on hers, replaying it over and over in her mind. They effects had lasted for as long as the high did about an hour and a half. The group in the back corner had spent that time laugh and cheering Rogue's happiness and discovery.

At first Kyle had suggested that maybe it was just blocking her powers. Rogue thought it might be a possibility until suddenly her fingers had begun to itch and tingle. In a daze she had brought them close to her eyes seeing a faint white glow around them. It was only when she snapped her fingers that she realized they were charged with electricity as spark flew from her fingers into the air. She was actually accessing Storm's powers.

At the end of the night the guy with the stubby horns whose name was Walter gave her his number if she wanted to get anymore off of him and said he couldn't possible charge her full price if it did something like that for her. He slipped another joint of Kick into her pocket, and left with a hug and a wave. Rogue couldn't get enough of hugs now.

Rogue had gotten in late by half an hour and it being her second offence that month got grounded for the weekend but it didn't matter. She had stayed up all night excited and thinking about what she could do now. She could go the beach, she could hug friends, she could kiss boys, do more then kiss even if she wanted. But there was one thing she had to do first.

She had to tell Kitty.

Her roommate was still asleep in her bed, snoring away. The fact that Kitty snored always put a smile on her face no matter how down she was. She debated letting Kitty sleep a little longer but decided that she had already waited five hours and Kitty could sleep later.

Rogue went over to Kitty's bed gently started to shake her, rousing her from sleep. Her snoring turned into an indignant honk before she woke up to her roommate hovering over her and doing something really weird…..smiling. Not to mention it was, she glanced over at her alarm clock, six thirty in the freakin' morning.

"Why are you waking me up at like the crack of dawn?" she asked groggily.

"Dawn was half an hour ago, and I gotta tell you something!" Rogue gushed. Actually gushed! Kitty thought maybe she should actually listen to this. Rogue was not a morning person. Sometimes not even an afternoon person. For Rogue to be this happy, this early had to mean one thing.

With genuine concern Kitty sat up and said, "Rogue, are you like having a mental breakdown? Cause you can talk to me about it…"

"Shut yer trap and just listen," Rogue huffed still smiling. "I gotta tell you something."

"What?" Kitty asked warily.

"Have you heard of Kick?" Rogue asked.

When Kitty admitted that she hadn't Rogue told her everything about last night, including how Kick had controlled her powers

"Oh my god!!! Are you serious?" Kitty gaped stunned. "It actually controlled your power, not just blocked them?"

Rogue laughed. "You shoulda seen me snapping off sparks at everybody."

"Oh my god, I'm so happy for you," Kitty almost went to hug Rogue but remembered she wasn't in control right then. "I wish I could hug you for this!"

Rogue smirked, reached into her pocket and pulled out the joint.

"Maybe later you can."


	4. Chapter 4

Kitty could not get over the change in Rogue as the day wore on.

Now matter how much she tried to act normal Rogue could be seen with a little smile on her face the entire day. More then one person commented on it and Kurt got especially inquisitive.

"Vas had you so happy?" He asked, hanging from the banister of the stairs as Kitty and her passed by.

"None of your business," Rogue snapped back. The intended effect of anger was totally ruined by her almost giggling as they moved past and out doors

The day was bright and sunny the way it had begun as the two girls wound their way through the grounds, trying to find a place that institute students weren't playing around or making out in bushes.

"Jeeze," Kitty huffed. "You'd think we had a population of five hundred rather then fifty." They eventually found a private place near one of the gazebos on the far east side of the grounds with no one around.

Rogue took out the joint with a silver lighter. She'd had the lighter for years just for effect but never had a real use for it until now. As she started to light it Kitty spoke up.

"Are you sure this stuff isn't dangerous?" Kitty asked. Seeing the mutinous look on Rogue's face she quickly added. "Look I really am happy for you! I am! But this is like a drug, right? What if it has long term effects or something?"

"Kitty, stop being such a wuss," Rogue chuckled. "My friends at Splice said they had been taking it for years and all of them are fine." This was a lie; it had never come up how long any of them were taking it or what any kinds of side effects might be. All Rogue knew is that it controlled her powers and she wasn't going to let a little fear stop her.

Rogue spun the wheel on her Zippo and lit the end of the joint. The cherry blazed as Rogue took a deep draw on it. Her cheeks puffed out as she held the smoke and passed the joint to Kitty.

Dubiously Kitty took it. This morning she had really been happy for Rogue but after thinking about it during the day she had thought this might be dangerous. None of them had ever heard of it before and you'd think living with an all mutant staff something like a drug that effects your powers would have come up at some point.

But she didn't want to let down Rogue who was watching her. She pinched the spliff between two fingers and drew on the end. The arid, choking smoke filled her lungs and she immediately coughed out emerald green smoke, feeling like she was hacking up her lungs.

Rogue finally blew out a plume of almost gray smoke and laughed. Already feeling light in her head. "Don't feel bad. That happened to me too. Just try again."

Rogue took the joint, took another deep draw and handed it back. This time Kitty inhaled slower, letting the smoke fill her lungs a little at a time. This time she was able to hold it for a few seconds before letting it out.

Almost immediately Kitty started to feel giddy and floaty. Her and Rogue just looked at each other and burst out laughing as they passed the joint and finished it. Kitty started to feel really light and told Rogue, "I feel like I'm going to blow away!" and to illustrate that she puffed her cheeks and blew out wind.

Very shortly she was screaming as the air she had just puffed out blew her back and into the air, leaving her to float there. Rogue stumbled forward and tried to grab Kitty's foot only to have her hand go right through it and she fell on her face.

Kitty immediately started to laugh, bouncing around in the air. Kitty found her bouncing even funnier and laughed harder.

"Oi vey, how am I doing this," she asked Rogue who was getting up. Rogue was at the height of her knees and kinda shrugged her shoulders, dazed from the fall and drugs. She though it was silly to be talking to her knees and simply put a foot up into the air like a step and climbed up to Kitty's level.

"I made stairs in the air," Rogue giggled, and then laughing as she realized she rhymed.

The word air struck off something in Kitty's mind and she put all her concentration into remembering it. Then it came to her.

Thinking back she remembered how Dr. McCoy had once told her that she might one day be able to control her fazing enough that she could walk on air and possibly fly that way.

When she told Rogue this to the goth girl laughed and said cool…then said she was hungry.

They talked about how hungry they were for half an hour as the drug wore off and they floated back to the ground.


End file.
